About Path to Foreign Service

Welcome to Path to Foreign Service – a Blog that helps aspiring Foreign Service Officer candidates become more knowledgeable about the profession!

My name is Jack, and I, just like you, have the goal of joining the Foreign Service.

You may call me a Foreign Service brat. I currently live in Washington, work on education policy, and love playing soccer and ultimate frisbee.

A proud Third Culture Kid, I’ve lived in seven different countries as a FS brat: Portugal, Cuba, Uruguay, Costa Rica, United States, China, and Kenya. I attended international schools growing up and graduated from the International School of Kenya. I then returned to the U.S. to earn a triple major at Florida State University, a Master’s degree at the University of Memphis, worked in DC for five years, and now I live in Washington.

My move back to the U.S. for college definitely started a new stage in my life and one that has impacted who I am. So much so that an easy break can be made at life “before college” and “life at the start of college”.

Waiting to apply

Applied

Waiting for test

Took test

Waiting for results

PNQs

Waiting for PNQ Results

Invited to Orals, and Waiting

Passed Orals

Medical & Background Clearance

Review Panel

On the Register

Invited to be a Foreign Service Officer!

As you can see, it’s quite the process and there is a lot of waiting involved!

For legal safety sake, it is important to note that this blog is not affiliated with the State Department and any opinions and studies published are solely my own. There will be a number of times that I reference external sources, and many will be from State, but I will make sure to link to anything mentioned for full transparency.

Having taken the FSOT, and taking it again, it is also necessary to note that this site, and my communications, complies with the non-disclosure agreement. So please do not submit comments or emails that may go counter to the NDA.

With that said, Path to Foreign Service is meant to be a resource and a place where you can find support and information on the Foreign Service. If you are looking for an overview on the Foreign Service I definitely suggest visiting the official careers.state.gov website first. This is a must, but once you do that then come back to pFS! You will find the careers website to be informative, but general and not personal.

My hope is to bridge that divide.

So if you have any questions or just want to reach out and say hi, please do so! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter to keep up with posts and be privy to updates that are not published on the site.